Recently, Hydroxyl-Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB), which is a prepolymer of a binder for Plastic-Bonded Explosives (PBX's), has been widely used as a binder for polyurethane groups. This binder is contained in PBX in the amount of about 15% by weight to improve mechanical properties of PBX. However, since this binder is an inert material, it can reduce the energy of PBX.
Therefore, many efforts have been made to develop a high-energy binder(energetic binder) in order to increase the energy of PBX. As a result of such efforts, new types of energetic binders have been developed, which include binders containing energetic explosophoric groups such as nitro (—C—NO2), nitrate (—O—NO2), nitramine (—N—NO2), and azido (—N3) functional groups. More specifically, the energetic binders include poly(glycidyl nitrate) (PGN, formula 1), glycidiyl azide polymer (GAP, formula 2), poly[3,3-bis(azidomethyl)oxetane] (poly[BAMO], formula 3), poly(3-azidomethyl-3-methyloxetane) (poly[AMMO], formula 4) and the like.

However, many energetic binders containing azido groups such as the GAP of Formula 2,the poly[BAMO] of the Formula 3,and poly[AMMO] of the Formula 4 have not been widely used as energetic binders due to their poor thermal stability and relatively high sensitivity to mechanical stimuli.
A typical example of energetic binders containing nitrate groups is the PGN of Formula 1. But the energetic binders like the PGN are self-decomposed in the polyurethane elastomer, after a polyurethane elastomer has been synthesized, as shown in the following reaction scheme 1.

As shown in reaction scheme 1,when the polyurethane elastomer is synthesized by using the PGN of the Formula 1,the hydrogen atom which binds to the carbon to which a nitrate group is bound is chemically acidified thereby causing a decomposition reaction as shown in reaction scheme 1,and thereby causes a decomposition of the main chain of polyurethane.
So far, application of energetic binders containing explosophoric groups such as nitro and nitramine groups has been limited because of difficulty in synthesis. Despite, many researches made in order to solve such problems, no remarkable results have not been obtained yet.